Superman Strikes A Pose In First-Look Batman v Superman Picture

It is always darkest before the Dawn. And so we get a stormy, ominous first look at Henry Cavill in his Superman suit in the first official photo from Warner Bros. upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

USA Today scored the exclusive, as well as an information dump from director Zack Snyder in today’s paper. First, a few observations on Henry Cavill in the shot. His suit has a few minor differences from his initial Man of Steel costume. There’s a yellow/gold belt that has been incorporated into the suit. And he still doesn’t have the red underwear on the outside. Is his "S" shield on his chest a little smaller? It’s hard to tell from this angle. But yeah, Cavill still looks like a badass Kal-El! Remember his initial photo teasing his appearance in Man of Steel?

And, of course, he’s going to be facing off against THIS dude. More on that in a minute:

Zack Snyder pulled short of explaining, in detail, the nature of the relationship between Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) in the 2016 super-mega-blockbuster, emphasizing that the "v." in the title helps "keep it from being a straight 'versus' movie, even in the most subtle way." But he explains that the movie very much is about helping Kal-El, and his alter ego of Clark Kent, get more acclimated to his adopted home planet, striking out and exploring new areas (like Gotham City) and new threats (like Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor).

The director also talks about why they brought Batman into the fold in this particular story, saying it wasn’t the plan initially, but his introduction felt organic to the direction they wanted to go – namely, getting to a full-on Justice League movie by 2018. And Snyder talks about not having the need to start at Batman’s origin, which has been done numerous times before by directors like Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan. Says Snyder:

"It's cooler to see a crusty old Batman beating the snot out of guys."

Damn right it is! This media teasing HAS to be in preparation for Comic-Con, which takes over downtown San Diego later this month. Warner Bros. is expected to be in attendance with a lot more information on the planned DC Cinematic Universe (or whatever they choose to call it). Could we see actual footage from 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice? Fingers crossed.